Character List

The middle name of all male characters end in "ovitch" and of all female characters in "ovna." This ending simply means "son of" or "daughter of" the father whose first name is converted into their middle name and is called a patronymic. For example, Rodya and Dunya's father was named Roman Raskolnikov. Thus, Rodya's middle name Rodion Romanovitch means son of Roman and Dunya's middle name, Avdotya Romanovna, means daughter of Roman.

RodionRomanovitchRaskolnikov(Rodya, Rodenka, or Rodka) A poverty-stricken student who conceives of a theory of the "Ubermensch" or extraordinary man who has the right and/or obligation to trangress the laws of the ordinary man in order to give a New Word or idea to all of humanity. He uses this theory as a justification or rationalization to commit murder.

Lizaveta Ivanovna The mild, likable half sister to Alyona who is brutalized by her.

Polenka, Lyona, Kolya (Kolka) Katerina Ivanovna's children by a previous marriage. Sonyas greatest fear is that Polenka might have to enter into prostitution — Raskolnikov plagues her with this thought.

Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailov's wife who once assumed Dunya had designs on her husband.

Luzhin (Pyotr Petrovitch) A petty and miserly clerk in government who wants a poor person for his bride so that she will be indebted to him.

Ilya Petrovitch A loud and somewhat overbearing police official to whom Raskolnikov makes his confession when there was no one else to confess to.

Nikolay (Milkolka) and Dmitri (Mitka) The painters who were working in the flat below the pawnbroker's flat at the time of the crime.

A Note on Pronunciation

If the reader will remember to give strong stress to the syllable marked with an accent in this list, to give the vowels their "continental" value, and pronounce the consonants as in English, a rough approximation to the Russian pronunciation will be obtained. The consonant "kh" sounds rather like the Scottish "ch" in "loch"; the "zh" represents a sound like "s" in "measure"; and the final "v" is pronounced "f."